Missouri Woman Wins $250,000 in Spur of Moment Ticket Buy

CEDAR HILLS, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri woman can’t feel too bad about her near miss in the record Mega Millions drawing from last month. After all, she still won $250,000 on a ticket she bought on a whim.

The Missouri Lottery on Wednesday identified the $250,000 winner as 43-year-old Roberta Riester of Cedar Hill, near St. Louis. She bought the winning ticket at a U-Gas station in Cedar Hill for the March 30 drawing.

Riester says she never plays the Lottery but when asked by the U-Gas worker if she wanted a ticket, she decided to buy five. One matched all five white-ball numbers in the record $656 million drawing.